Lamara Bell, 25, died after being left in the wrecked car for three days because an officer failed to assign anyone to investigate an accident report.

She lay in the blue Renault Clio beside her boyfriend John Yuill, 28 – who was already dead when police finally reached the scene.

Police Scotland Chief Constable Sir Stephen House has blamed an experienced police sergeant for failing to log the call but the scandal has prompted two major inquiries – one into the incident and the other into whether the call centre is coping.

Financial adviser Gus Macleod could have been stabbed by a thief he tackled because police took nearly 45 minutes to turn up.

He said: “It was the first time I had ever stepped in to do something like that, and it will certainly be my last.”

Police Scotland also failed to respond to a 999 call about an attempted theft of diesel at a farm – despite the farmer almost being run over by the would-be thieves.

The farmer, who asked not to be named, said: “I have very little faith in Police Scotland as a result.”

Yesterday, Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie demanded a major overhaul of Scotland’s police force after the conclusion of a probe into the M9 tragedy.

Justice Secretary Michael Matheson has ordered Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland to investigate the police’s handling of the crash.

There is also an independent probe by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner into the force’s call-handling system.

But Rennie believes that after the two probes have finished, there should be a major reorganisation of Police Scotland.

John Yuill was not found in car for three days

House – who is due to leave the force next year – has faced calls to quit in the aftermath of John and Lamara’s deaths but he has held firm and refused to resign.

Rennie said: “What Michael Matheson has ordered is far from enough.

“I was pleased he agreed to an inquiry but really disappointed that within hours he was saying there wasn’t a problem and it was being carried out to show the public everything is okay. That’s just taking us for fools.

“He should allow the inquiry to take its course and find out the truth and then deal with the consequences of that, rather than try to blame one individual now. There needs to be a wider inquiry as well. This is not just about call handling, it’s about the operation of Police Scotland.

“There is a serious problem of backfilling of civilian jobs by officers who don’t have appropriate training, management style and top-down targets and controls.

“The target culture that has led to things like a massive increase in stop and search needs to change in order for us to go back to the traditional form of Scottish policing.”

Rennie warned of the pitfalls of a single police force before the creation of Police Scotland two years ago. Yesterday, he said: “I can’t see us going back to the eight forces – however, we can make the police more accountable to local communities.

“When Highland Council said they didn’t want police guns on the streets of Inverness, they were initially ignored.

“We need to get rid of the target-driven management style. Stephen House has been driven by that management style. He wants to know anything that moves within the organisation and he loves statistics.

“Statistics at the cost of everything else is not a healthy way to proceed but the Scottish Government have been permissive of that approach. They were quite happy to have stop and search rates five times higher than in England and for police guns to be on the street.”

He said: “He is going next year anyway – I think it is a bit of a distraction. This is about changing more than the job of one person.

“It’s about changing an organisation and resetting the foundations of the police force, which has had a very bad start.”

Last night, Police Scotland Assistant Chief Constable Val Thomson said: “Bilston has undergone a significant amount of change as part of the ongoing phased restructuring of C3 division.

“We continue to support officers and staff, monitor any issues arising and scrutinise performance across C3 to ensure service to communities is not affected.

“Emergency calls are graded to allow the most appropriate response to be deployed to incidents. All our staff are trained in assessing calls and determining the priority of response required.

“On every occasion, we strive to ensure that calls are graded correctly and officers attend as timeously as possible. Police Scotland handle 4.2million emergency and non-emergency calls annually.”

Meanwhile, it has emerged that more than 53,000 working days at Police Scotland have been lost to stress in the past two years.

A freedom of information request by Scottish Labour revealed that between January and March this year alone, more than 10,000 absence days were recorded due to conditions including stress, anxiety and depression.

Scottish Labour’s legal affairs spokeswoman Elaine Murray said: “The fact that under the SNP Government, more than 53,000 working days have been lost to stress in the last two years is shocking. Although modest progress has been made, the spike at the start of this year is concerning. The SNP Government should investigate why there was such a big increase compared to the same time last year.”

Deputy Chief Constable Rose Fitzpatrick said: “During the first two years of Police Scotland, the number of days lost through stress-related absence has fallen year on year by more than 17,000. Police Scotland has almost 23,000 people who work for the service and in common with any other large organisation, recognises that stress can be a factor in absence rates among personnel.”

THEFT VICTIM: I WAITED AND WAITED BUT NO ONE CAME

A farmer has told how police failed to act on a theft bid despite him almost being run over by the culprits. He dialled 999 after the incident on July 1 but a constable only called back last week to offer security tips.

I have very little faith in Police Scotland as a result of an attempted theft at our farm three weeks ago.

Our dog barking woke us up at 3am. I heard a clang coming from our yard and knew we had intruders so I put a jacket on, grabbed a torch and ran outside.

Two men were trying to break into our diesel tank. When they saw me, they jumped in their car and roared away, almost knocking me over in the process.

I didn’t get the reg number but immediately I called the police with the car’s description and the direction it had headed in.

I first called the Fife HQ control room but got a recorded message telling me to dial 101. I immediately dialled 999 and told them what had happened. They took my name and location and I was given a number and told they’d get someone to me as soon as they could.

I waited up for a couple of hours but no one came. To be honest, I don’t want to see anyone now because there will not be a hope in hell of catching anyone.

I did get a call from a constable last week. He said he was going through the incident cards and offered to come over and give me advice on security.

I declined and told him that a response at the time would’ve been much more helpful.

I’ve always supported the police. Individual officers are excellent but the control and direction system doesn’t work.

Sadly, what happened to Lamara Bell on the M9 comes as no surprise at all.

KNIFE HERO: IT WAS LIKE I WAS PHONING FOR A TAXI

A good citizen who caught an armed bag thief had to phone 999 three times before police came to help. Financial adviser Gus Macleod faced being stabbed by the thug because officers took nearly 45 minutes to turn up – despite there being a police station 300 yards away.

I was out with my wife for a bite to eat in a bar in Bathgate. I saw a guy take someone’s handbag and run out the door, running into the road and forcing the traffic to stop, then down an alley.

I gave chase, thinking that he would just throw the bag away. But when I got to him, he turned round and started punching me.

After a bit of a grappling match, I got him down on the ground and kept him pinned down.

People walking past gave us a wide berth, and I don’t blame them for that, but a young lad stopped and asked if he could help. He called 999 and gave them the information required.

After about 20 minutes, the bag thief’s family arrived and started giving me grief. I phoned the police this time but they treated me like I was phoning a taxi – there didn’t seem to be any great urgency.

After about 45 minutes there was still no sign of them. This was despite the local police station only being about 300 yards away.

By this time, I couldn’t keep the guy on the ground any longer and had to let him up. He pulled out a pen knife and tried to stab me in the face. It could’ve taken one of my eyes out.

Another bystander helped and we managed to get him face-down on the ground until I could free the knife from his hand. I then asked the young lad to phone the police again and tell them he now has a knife out.

The police arrived five minutes later. When I asked them where they had been, they said they had been busy.

When I gave a statement, they asked me if I had used reasonable force to get the guy on the ground. I felt as if I was the one under investigation.

It was the first time I had ever stepped in as a member of the public to do something like that, and it will certainly be my last.

Bilston Glen call centre (Image: Alistair Linford)

POLICE VETERAN: THE SYSTEM IS A SHAMBLES

A serving police officer has lifted the lid on chaos at the call centre that handled the M9 death smash. The veteran, with more than 20 years’ experience, says the Bilston Glen office is struggling to cope with its workload. Here, he lays bare the problems frontline staff face in dealing with 101 calls from the public.

Bilston Glen is like a pressure cooker. The problem we have is a lot of experienced civilian staff who answered calls left the force and Police Scotland have tried to mask this by putting police officers in their place.

I’m told the officer who took the call about the M9 crash, a sergeant with 27 years’ service, had previously worked in the control room but he wasn’t trained to use the computer system. He had to write down the information and pass it on to someone else.

The force wouldn’t just take an officer off the street to fill in at the control room. They shouldn’t be doing it with the call centre either – we now know the dire consequences of that happening.

Last month, I was told there was a backlog of 10,000 call cards at Bilston Glen. I heard of one being raised after someone asked about joining the force. Someone could’ve been waiting to report a robbery while that card was filled in.

Some police officers at Bilston Glen work 12 hours a day there and some have even transferred there from Glasgow.

The merging of the call centres was supposed to save money – but officers are being paid mileage ad expenses to work at Bilston Glen.

House promised that civilian posts being taken away wouldn’t be filled by officers but it happens on a daily basis.

The system is an absolute shambles and anyone who says otherwise isn’t being honest.

On one shift this week, there were more than 40 calls waiting to be actioned in the area I work in. Before Police Scotland, there would have been two or three. There are just not enough response cops to go to these calls.

The problem has been exacerbated by the closure of public counters in police stations. People can’t report a crime over the counter any longer and the counter staff had a wealth of knowledge that’s now lost.

Morale at Bilston Glen is at rock bottom – but it’s no worse than anywhere else.

No officer has been happy in their job since the creation of Police Scotland.